Evolution of the clinical simulation approach to assess digital health technologies

Karen Lau; Jack Halligan; Gianluca Fontana; Chaohui Guo; Fiona K O'Driscoll; Matthew Prime; Saira Ghafur

doi:10.7861/fhj.2022-0145

Evolution of the clinical simulation approach to assess digital health technologies

Future Healthc J. 2023 Jul;10(2):173-175. doi: 10.7861/fhj.2022-0145.

Authors

Karen Lau¹, Jack Halligan², Gianluca Fontana³, Chaohui Guo⁴, Fiona K O'Driscoll⁵, Matthew Prime⁶, Saira Ghafur⁷

Affiliations

¹ St George's University of London and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK; Research Manager at Samuel Hall, London, UK.
² Imperial College London, London, UK; co-founder and COO at Prova Health, London, UK.
³ Imperial College London, London, UK; co-founder and CEO at Prova Health, London, UK.
⁴ Roche Diagnostics, Basel, Switzerland.
⁵ Imperial College London, London, UK.
⁶ Roche Diagnostics, Basel, Switzerland; co-founder at Open Medical, London, UK; honorary research fellow at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, London, UK.
⁷ Imperial College London, London, UK; co-founder at Prova Health, London, UK; co-founder at Psyma, London, UK; honorary consultant in Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK.

Abstract

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has catalysed digital transformation in the health space. However, it remains a challenge to generate timely and cost-effective evidence for digital health technologies (DHTs) to ensure their safety and efficacy. Traditional methods, such as randomised controlled trials (RCTs), are ill-suited for assessing DHTs for reasons of speed, agility, cost and context. Clinical simulation using high-fidelity synthetic patient cases is emerging as a promising yet underexplored method to evaluate DHTs. It offers several advantages, including conducting remote multi-site testing at low cost, inclusion of high-risk patient profiles that are usually excluded from RCTs and adaptability to different local clinical settings. This article shares some of the insights from studies using clinical simulation conducted at the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) at Imperial College London and describes the evolution of this approach as well as future opportunities.

Keywords: cancer services; digital health; digital health technology; regulation.